Over the years, many people have proposed untold numbers of ways for controlling temperature within a vehicle used in the transportation of perishable materials. The term, vehicle, as used herein includes truck semi-trailer, truck full trailer, truck van bodies, intermodal containers, railway car and other similar units. In the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, most of the effort was directed to railroad cars. However, with the advent of trucks and the improvement in highways, the major effort now is directed toward truck trailers and intermodal containers. Many of these patents disclose systems for controlling the flow of air in an effort to ensure that all the perishable material is kept at a temperature most desirable for the products being transported. In spite of all these efforts, there continues to exist the problem of keeping all of the perishable material at the desired temperature at all times during transportation especially in long distance hauls particularly when the ambient temperature is extremely hot or cold.
It is an object of this invention to provide method and apparatus for controlling the flow of temperature conditioned air through a vehicle carrying perishable material so that the perishable material is maintained at the desired temperature.
It is another object of this invention to provide temperature conditioned air to a vehicle wherein the conditioning means for providing the air at the desired temperature is mounted on the front side of the vehicle and such conditioning means is provided with air flow enhancement contours.
It is a further object of this invention to utilize both convection and conduction means to keep perishable materials in a vehicle at a desired temperature.